Red starts out a little bit gruesomely--the first chapter is told from the killer's POV as he stalks and ultimately rips a woman apart in a deluded belief that she is his 'One', his 'mate'. The fact that she tears apart so easily and dies fazes him only slightly, he just figures there is someone better out there after all.

The book alternates like that--we have a mostly third person POV (either from Morgan or Gina's perspective), but occasional chapters are from the killer's first person POV, especially as we get closer to learning the truth of who he is exactly. I liked that--it gave us a sense of who, or rather what, we were dealing with and later when its revealed who it is, helps to round out the character development so as not to seem like it came out of left field.

Overall I had few problems with the book--it did get a little redundant with both Morgan and Gina constantly thinking about how much they wanted to have sex with the other and the list of reasons why they shouldn't or should wait. It didn't help that Gina was largely clueless about herself and her true nature while Morgan (and the entire rest of the town) was not. While Gina was being Gina, Morgan (and the other Others, or paranormals, in town) saw the subtle meaning behind certain gestures she made. Baring her neck to him, backing down in a fight, fierce protectiveness. It made for some interesting reading.

Guessing who the killer is should either be really simple and a 'I knew I was right' moment or a confusing 'really? but I thought...?' moment. I had a little of both. I guessed correctly, but was left confused as to the killer's ability to remain so...not crazed. Reading the killer's POV chapters should make you think this guy was off his rocker and should be caught sooner rather then later, but not so much. Gina is the catalyst in so many ways and for so many plans and people.

My one true gripe with the book is near the end when Gina goes to talk to her grandfather about a sensitive matter. I didn't recognize her at all. The strong, independent, fierce and capable chick was suddenly replaced with a juvenile trying to deny that she had been caught cheating on a test. If I could have slapped her, I would have. Hard. Then run far far away when she pulled a gun or knife on me. I realize that her world was shattering in a matter of moments, but it seemed too overdone to me.

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I enjoyed reading this introduction to the Dead world series. I found Red to be a fantastic character. The addition of Morgan made it that much better. ( )

I picked this book up, not realizing it was a romance novel. And, it was actually very well written. Theres some oddness with the timeline of this world (for example, when did this war happen..) and the ecology of the world doesn't make sense for example, large predators survived such as wild dogs, but no trees or water?.

At first, I wasn't sure if I liked the character of Red. She's this kick ass heroine at first, but melts at the first man who she's truly attracted to. Its a bit sterotypical, except that Red has a lived a very sheltered life, with very little human contact but lots of violence. Its a romance. The characters got hot and heavy at a moments notice. It detracts from the story, but it is labeled as paranormal romance...

Its essentially a werewolf and vampire story created by technology, set in a post apocalyptic future. ( )

RED by Jordan Summers. I was lucky enough to win an autographed copy from one of Cheyenne McCray's contests. The author of Red describes her book on the inside as a "gritty love" story. It's gritty. Set in the future, America, and presumably the rest of the world is suffering from a depleted ozone layer, resulting in depletion of forests, grasslands, etc. Some animals of become extinct. The United States of America has dissolved, with republics arising, like the Republic of Arizona, the Republic of the Floridian Islands, etc. The outside of the republics are considered no-mans land, with no law. The larger cities are contained withing huge domes to provide atmosphere, protection from the sun.

Gina Santiago, the heroine works for an elite tactical team (International Police Tactical Team, IPTT) that protects all the republics from each other. Her grandfather is in charge of this agency. There is mystery surrounding her families' death. Both parents and a sister have died, so she was brought up by her grandfather. She has episodes, where she wakes up covered in blood, with torn clothing but no scratches. She has no memories of whatever has happened. Gina has a nickname, Red, that has nothing to do with hair color, and a lot to do with her expert marksmanship. Gina is an outsider, many of her co-workers consider her strange.

Bodies have been found of women who have been partially eaten and Gina, who finds one of these bodies has the gut feeling that there is more to the supposed animal attack than meets the eye. She insists of investigating, but has to do it on her own time. This leads her to a border town, where she meats Morgan Hunter. She finds the townspeople strange, and the sheriff (Morgan) seems to have an amazing amount of power over the townspeople. She is attracted to him, even though she suspects he is hiding something.

There are passages written in the first person from the person who is killing the women. The rest of the book is written in third person. There are myths of werewolves and vampires - "others' with supernatural powers, who some people believe, but most people deny. The version of Vampires and Werewolves here come from military tweaking and experiments of soldiers from centuries ago. Gina finds out things about herself and others that she doesn't want to believe.

I enjoyed this book very much. There is some sex, a few horrific murders narrated by the murderer, an alpha male, lots of plotting by various characters and adventure action. The world building is good. Jordan Summers paints a believable world with quite a lot of changes from the world we know.

Jordan Summers has written two sequels to Red, Scarlet (coming out in June) and Crimson (November 2009) that continue the story of Gina and Morgan. ( )

Not what I was expecting, but still very good. Futuristic earth, others [Vampires, Werewolves etc] makes for a great Urban Fantasy. Certainly set up for a series, well worth picking up. ( )